SUBMISSION OF MINUTES OF LAST MEETING
Posted within 2 weeks of meeting on website

OFFICER REPORTS
President's Report was submitted by David Spicer, president.
President’s Report to the Board
October 15th, 2010

The last quarter ArkGeo has continued to strive to meet it’s goals and mission statement.

The committees of ArkGeo have continued to work hard to help the association achieve success.

ArkGeo has been asked to set up a booth once again at the GIS Day event being held at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock on November 17th, 2010. Members of the Community Relations Committee and the Board have pledged to attend and staff the booth.

There are currently 244 registered voters. Nine new voting members were added since our last board meeting.

The monthly “Caching to do List” contest was transferred to the Membership Relations Committee.

The ArkGeo owned geocaches guidelines was transferred to the Membership Relations Committee.

ArkGeo has once again been invited to attend and set up a booth at the GIS Day event at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock on Wednesday, November 17th, 2010. Several Committee members plan on helping with this activity to help promote geocaching in Arkansas.

All work has been done in the forums. We have not had any face-to-face or teleconference meetings.

The Arkansas Challenge has been postponed until the spring with the date still undetermined.

The location for the annual event has not yet been confirmed.

We have received news about the correct process to follow in order to insure we do not incur the type of charges we had at this year's event at Petit Jean. If we go through the park interpreter and leave the event open to the public they should be able to get us in as a "Program" thereby increasing our chances of getting fees waived.

All work has been done through email or the forums. We have not had any teleconference meetings.

The committee selected MathSeeker as chairman. She agreed to take over management of the ArkGeo points system. The committee then went to work updating the “Caching To Do List” rules to reflect the new committee taking over the monthly contest.
The committee has created a new contest each month and verified each member’s list as it is posted. The committee has also awarded points to each member for attendance at official ArkGeo events.

All work has been done in the forums. We have not had any face-to-face or teleconference meetings. This method has worked very well for this committee and all members have been active in the discussions.

Other items of discussion for our committee have included working on a proposal for a “Junior Membership” option and the possibility of ArkGeo owned geocaches.

Special Committee for Website Management Continuity
This committee contacted our current Website Manager, Bert Drake this quarter. He is willing to transfer the domain name to ArkGeo.
Our Assistant Website Manager has been able to make much progress in the blocking of the IP addresses of spammers.

Status of Budget Proposals from Committees: The Events Committee has made their budget proposal. Other committees will continue to discuss this issue and present their proposals at the next Board meeting.

Release of Website by Bert Drake to ArkGeo – David Spicer
Bert Drake is willing to transfer ownership of the website.

Motion was made by Mike Pinkston and Seconded by Ron Laster to allocate $100 for Wayne Lunsford to follow through with the transfer of website ownership from Bert Drake to ArkGeo.
Motion carried.

Moving the ArkGeo bank account to a new bank – Beth Daniels was not present to discuss.

Arkansas Challenge Event hosted by ArkGeo – Richard Lee
The Events committee is proceeding with planning the first Arkansas Challenge Event sponsored by ArkGeo to be held in the Spring. No date has been set.

Making the meeting available via web or teleconference – David Spicer
The quarterly meetings of the ArkGeo Board will be open to all members by teleconference in the future. It is a long distance call.

Motion was made by David Spicer and seconded by Ron Laster to amend the standing rules to say: Membership will be given 10 minutes during the ”Round Table Discussion” to address the board. These comments must end before the meeting proper begins.
Motion carried.

Motion was made by David Spicer and Seconded by Tim Stone to add a link to the minutes posted for the recording of the board meeting to be available for membership.
Motion carried.

Adding Moderators to the Forums – David Spicer
No new moderators are needed at this point.

NEW BUSINESS
Junior Membership – David Spicer
Not at this time, maybe an honorary membership.

ArkGeo co-hosting events – Pat Vaughn
ArkGeo Events Committee must be involved in the planning of the event and have to have input.

E-mail from Kevin Cackler – David Spicer
Wayne Lunsford and Mike Pinkston will get Cackler’s portfolio and get feedback from his customers.

The minutes state that there are currently 244 registered voters. However, how many are actually "active" in the organization or on the website? The Board needs to make an effort to update the membership list and determine the actual number of "active" members. I suspect that there are many members who signed up at one time or another and now are no longer active. Either they have dropped out of geocaching, they have moved away, or they just don't visit the website anymore. I believe we need an accurate count of our membership.

One thing that I haven't seen since June is an ArkGeo Eat & Greet event. I thought this was a great way to meet new geocachers across the state and get them involved in our organization. Is the Board no longer doing these?

Finally, what is our financial status? Although the Treasurer's Report may not have been available at the time of the meeting, surely it could have been provided in time for the minutes to be posted.

11-11-2010, 08:14 PM

Ashallond

I just have one question. a reference was made to the standing rules. Where on the website can I read those? I assume they are in a section that I just can't find for some reason or another.

Thanks.

11-12-2010, 04:38 PM

SJClimber

I think LogMeIn has a free VPN product allowing folks to work across the web. WebEx is another, but has a charge.

11-14-2010, 07:43 PM

TnT

Is it just me, or does anyone else have trouble accessing the googledocs with the status of goals referenced above? If others are having problems, could you please make it available to all?

11-15-2010, 03:00 PM

jclaudii

I second IRBH's statement about finding out the active number of voting members and I believe there is a simple solution to do this. We all know you have to be registered to vote, well put a time limit of one year on each person's account when they register to vote. After a year if they fail to re-register, they become just visiting member and not a voting member of the organization. This would give us another statistic of our growth; how many voting members reverted back to just plain members by not being active anymore or consciously deciding not to become a voting member for various reasons.

I know most clubs and organizations have a fee to join and I love that this one does not, but that does not mean we can't have yearly "to due's" to re-register as a voting member so we know who is active and who is not.

11-18-2010, 07:31 PM

OldRiverRunner

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ashallond

I just have one question. a reference was made to the standing rules. Where on the website can I read those? I assume they are in a section that I just can't find for some reason or another.

I don’t think they are available anywhere on the website for general member viewing. I remember I could see them on the Board Members Only forum section, when I was on the Board. It’s a good comment - I think the Standing Rules should be publicly available somewhere on the website.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TnT

Is it just me, or does anyone else have trouble accessing the googledocs with the status of goals referenced above? If others are having problems, could you please make it available to all?

Nope, I’m having the same problem. The GoogleDoc needs to changed to allow public viewing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jclaudii

I second IRBH's statement about finding out the active number of voting members and I believe there is a simple solution to do this. We all know you have to be registered to vote, well put a time limit of one year on each person's account when they register to vote. After a year if they fail to re-register, they become just visiting member and not a voting member of the organization. This would give us another statistic of our growth; how many voting members reverted back to just plain members by not being active anymore or consciously deciding not to become a voting member for various reasons.

I know most clubs and organizations have a fee to join and I love that this one does not, but that does not mean we can't have yearly "to due's" to re-register as a voting member so we know who is active and who is not.

Excellent suggestion!

Is anyone on the Board reading these comments? I am very surprised that there has been no response. I am still waiting on an answer about the Eat & Greets and ArkGeo’s financial status.

11-18-2010, 08:19 PM

BSA534

I'll try to answer what I can:

As far as the Meet & Greet go, quoting from the ArkGeo Goals that were approved in July of this year:

That means that those board members listed have agreed to hold 2 meet and greets in those areas by June 15, 2011. As best as I can tell none have been completed as of yet. Look forward to a busy event-filled winter and spring.

I'm hoping some of my fellow board members will be able to shed some light on the other 2 questions.

12-16-2010, 09:14 AM

topkitty98

Board meeting minutes have been edited to include the Treasurer's report. Thank you for your patience.